Migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees: Different labels for immigrants influence attitudes through perceived benefits in nine countries

The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement of people on record. Public discourse often uses labels to describe people on the move such as ‘migrants’, ‘asylum seekers’, or ‘refugees’ interchangeably. A preregistered study in nine countries (Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Franc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of social psychology 2023-08, Vol.53 (5), p.970-983
Main Authors: Graf, Sylvie, Rubin, Mark, Assilamehou‐Kunz, Yvette, Bianchi, Mauro, Carnaghi, Andrea, Fasoli, Fabio, Finell, Eerika, Gustafsson Sendén, Marie, Shamloo, Soraya Elizabeth, Tocik, Jaroslav, Lacko, David, Sczesny, Sabine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Benefits
Friendship
Immigrants
Immigration policy
labels
language
Migrants
migration
Political asylum
Psychology
psykologi
Refugees
Social distance
threats and benefits
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Summary:The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement of people on record. Public discourse often uses labels to describe people on the move such as ‘migrants’, ‘asylum seekers’, or ‘refugees’ interchangeably. A preregistered study in nine countries (Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; N = 2844) tested experimentally the effect of these three labels on attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policies. We found a significant difference between the label ‘migrant’ and both ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ on the social distance scale. Participants were happier if migrants, rather than asylum seekers and refugees, were their neighbours, friends, or partners. The effect was mediated by perceived benefits, but not threats, whereby migrants were perceived to bring more benefits to receiving societies than asylum seekers and refugees. To increase the acceptance of immigrants, speakers may consider specifying the given group and emphasize benefits that immigrants bring to receiving societies.
ISSN:0046-2772
1099-0992
1099-0992
DOI:10.1002/ejsp.2947